The Independents (12 page)

Bishop and David
stop
ped to
rest several times on the
trip to the ranch
. After carefully working th
eir way through all of the trip
wires and booby traps sur
rounding the camper, Bishop instructed
David to stay put and keep an eye on their
patient
.

Bishop walked to within ear
shot of
the camper,
picked up a small stone
,
and threw it onto the metal roof. It was a few seconds before Terri’s voice called out, “What’s the password?”

Bishop, whose muscles ached a bit from the la
te afternoon exercise, was fatigued
and a little puzzled.
“
Terri, w
e didn’t set a password.”

Terr
i, in a playful voice responded.
“Oh
w
ell, just so I know it’s you
,
Bishop, which of my features is your favorite?”

Bishop hesitated, knowing Terri had no idea what
had just transpired on the road
.
“U
mmm…
errrrrr…
your eyes?”

Terri was deligh
ted he had fallen into her trap.
“
Imposter!
My Bishop likes certain other features the best!
You better turn around an
d get outta here, you
charlatan! OR…being a
fair-minded
kind of girl
,
I will give you
a
choice. Would you pref
er I deliver the
slow death
by staking your body to a fire ant
hill
,
or
would you rather I
just put you out of your misery
with a high velocity lead treatment?”

Bishop rolled his eyes wondering where she got this shit
.
Okay, enough
.
“Terri, damnit, I have an injured man with me. We don’t have time for this shit
,
and I
do
like your eyes the best. Comi
ng in – shoot me if you want to
.”

Bishop
and David
were
soon
standing outside the camper
,
tot
ing
the Colonel
on the makeshift stretcher
. Terri
, now embarrassed by her bad timing,
met th
em with the big medical kit, busily working to get
everyone
s
ituated in the
Bat Cave
.

Bishop
hurriedly
introduced
Terri to
both David and
the
Colonel
.
Obviously, t
he first order of busin
ess was to attend to the wounded
man.
Terri flashed Bishop a perplexed
look as she assessed the Colonel’s condition. He looked very pale and the “ambulance ride” seemed to have taken its toll.
Bishop had applied some compress dressings earlier, but those had only slowed the bleeding. Terri dug out some stronger painkillers and helped the Colonel get them down. He refused anything to eat, but
greedily swallowed the
water she offered him.
Throughout
the triage
session
, Bishop updated Terri on the events that had occurred
at the Highway 98 landing strip, diplomatically leaving out certain painful details in light of his guests. Bishop’s skeletal account of the afternoon’s events continued while Terri
fuss
ed
over their
guest
s’
accommodations
as much as their current situation allowed.

While David scarfed down some rabbit meat,
Bis
ho
p and Terri ventured outside the
c
ave to talk
at length
.

“Bishop, we have to get the Colonel
to a doctor. We can’t do anything with that rod sticking through him. Should we leave tonight and head to
Meraton
?”

Bishop sighed,
“Babe, I am exhausted
,
and I couldn’t get the truck ready that fast anyway. He is weaker than before
,
and it might be because we had to move him. I
’
m also worried about those guys
with the Hummer
. I might be full of shit, but I read them as the type to return with numbers. I
’d
hate to be going down that highway
at night
and run into them. I think we
need to stay here for now
and head out tomorrow after I make sure the coast is clear.
Besides, there is the girl to think about. I don’t want to abandon her.
”

Terri weighted
Bishop’s logic and then replied.
“You’re r
ight. We can take turns tending
him and sleep
ing
. Do you have any idea what he
’s
doing out here?
It would be way too much of a coincidence for him to
just
accidentally fly within yards of the ranch. So how did he find
us?”

“No, there wasn’t time to ask any questions. I’m hoping after he rests for a bit
,
he can talk. I also want to know what those gu
ys with the Hummer wanted. The whole scenario
was just weird.”

She r
eached up and stroked his cheek.
“Why don’t you get some rest? I
’m
wide-awake
and wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. I
’ll
stay up with them. Besides, I haven’t had anyone
different
to talk to
for months.”

Bi
shop snorted at her last remark.
“Terri, they are our guests, not prisoners. Please
…d
on’t torture them too badly,”
a comment
which earned him a solid punch on the arm.

Terri went back to the
c
ave to take care of their visitors
w
hile Bishop sauntered
over to the shower room,
a clear plastic bag
contain
ing ten gallons of water that had been warmed by
the
afternoon
desert
sun.
The
water
temperature
was tepid
at best, but
in his post-adrenaline rush state,
he
just
didn’t care. He untied the rope that pinched the hose closed and let the cool water pour over him.
What I would give
f
or a handful
of shampoo
!

They had attempted to make home
made soap, but were eit
her missing some key ingredient
or had messed up the process. The
result of their labor was a
brownish yellow goo
that
had neither lathered, nor smelled very good
.
Terri
remarked that the odor seemed to attract a kettle of turkey buzzards she spotted circling above. “Bishop,” she
had remarked, “I don’t believe this is a recipe for soap at all. I think this vile concoction of yours is
designed
to attract these foul creatures so that you don’t have to expend the effort hunting them down!” Bishop
had endured unfathomable tortures
and teasing
during this little experiment
. He
decided if he were going to be accused of this heinous offense, at minimum he would reap the reward of
Terri’s reaction when
he returned with one of the smelly
birds
. Terri had stopped him when he exited the camper upon retrieving his rifle
, no doubt
aware of
his plan for payback
. “Let’s
not forget that is a protected species hun,”
she
said
with a slight smirk on her face.
She, however, never teased Bishop about the soap again.

B
est to keep a good sense of humor these days
-
I guess.
Bishop grinned to himself as he rinsed the des
ert off his aching body
. Terri often resorted to using a bucket of very fine grain sand she kept close by
to clean her skin s
ince
, for her,
half the joy of showering was the multitude of tiny bubbles with their soapy rainbow colors as well as the girlie scent that accompanied it.
Bishop made a mental note to resolve the soap issue when they next visited the
Meraton market.
He had to smile thinking about
walking through the market asking if the soap’s
fragrance
was known to attract
scaveng
ers or
raptors
.
Even
a
decent
recipe
w
ould do
the trick
.
 

Bishop had been looking forward to going back there.
Meraton
was a small town, only a
few hours away. During the trip
from Houston, they had seen the absolute worst of mankind and the effects of anarchy.
Meraton
had restored some of his faith and hope in
human beings
. The people of
Meraton
, probabl
y due to the isolation of their tiny village, had retained
some of their civilized behavior.
There was even an open mark
et where peaceful commerce, old-
fashioned bartering
,
and a wide assortment of go
ods were available. In the
Bat Cave
, under an old tarp, was a stack of gold that belonged to the people of
Meraton
. Bishop and the
townspeople
had found the booty after a gunfight with a gang of mid-western bank robbers.
Gold, giv
en the current state of
the economy, was worthless
. The town’s leaders believed that one day the treasure might have value again and could be used to rebuild. They also understood that the loot might attr
act others who might not be so
civil
minded
.
So w
hen Bishop and Terri left Merat
on, the fine citizens of the township
entrusted the couple to take the gold with them and store it
at some
“undisclosed location.” 

The gold! That was it!
Bishop tied off the
water and hurriedly
dressed.
He rush
ed into the
Bat Cave
and found
the Colonel
was sleeping. David and Terri were sitting in the corner quietly talking. Terri looked up, surprised to see her husband. “I thought you were going to rest?”

Bishop was eager to fill her in,
“I took a shower
,
and it dawned on me what those guys
in the Hummer
were after.”

Terri
, happy to be one step ahead of him,
pointed
to
the stack of gold under the tarp in the corner.

Bishop replied, “I knew it
!
Now it makes more sense
. But how did they know
its
location
?”

David chimed in, “They kept asking Grandpa about gold. Where
was the gold;
where was Bishop?
Where was Bishop’s ranch?”

It all came together at once. The town’s leaders had made it known that Bishop was taking t
he
gold with him. They wanted that information spread around so trouble wouldn’t come to
Meraton
seeking
the treasure. Their plan had worked, but rather than the town attracting troublemakers, Bishop was now the target.
No good deed goes unpunished.

“Bishop, I always thought you were a stand-up guy, not a pirate with buried treasure.”
A scratchy
voice startled them from behind.
“
Could someone please give me something to drink?”